The Port of Oakland, in an effort to relieve weekday congestion, will initiate Saturday gate operations at four of its container terminals.

Breaking a run of six consecutive months of improvement, container service reliability across the three main East-West trades declined in July, falling by 4.0 percentage points from June to 73.3 percent, according to Carrier Performance Insight, the online schedule reliability tool provided by Drewry Supply Chain Advisors.

A surge in crude tanker vessel capacity over the next two years will lead to a fall in ship-owner earnings from current highs, according to the latest edition of the Tanker Forecaster, published by global shipping consultancy Drewry.

Drone ships may be the next generation of shipping. Rolls Royce recently launched a $7.2m autonomous ship project intended to pave the way for drone vessels.

Just one year after its announcement, Egypt's expanded Suez Canal is open for business. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi led the inauguration ceremony, which was attended by several Middle Eastern and European world leaders. The publicly-funded expansion cost about $8.5bn.

The specialised reefer fleet is shrinking and shows no signs of reversing in the future. However, the reefer containership fleet has increased by 15 percent year-on-year and is set to grow 20 percent by 2018, according to Drewry's latest Reefer Shipping Market Annual Review & Forecast.

Distribution centers near the nation's top seaports are bursting with consumer goods and other cargo - and that's before the Panama Canal extension opens next spring. Distribution center and warehouse occupancy levels have reached historic highs, while expensive construction and labor costs keep new development sparse in many seaport industrial real estate markets.